AWARDS AREN'T EVERYTHING

Like the title says awards aren't everything and we certainly don't make beer for this reason. However, it was nice to be recognised for the hard work
and dedication that our team has put into making good beer and being advocates for the good beer movement.

We're beyond thrilled to achieve what we did at the AIBA's (Australian International Beer Awards) and we just wanted to say thank you to everybody who
has shared a Balter with us these past 15 months. For us still, the most important award we can get is your approval. When you think what we do is
worth sharing with your mates, there's no greater reward than that.

If anyone was still clinging to any vestiges of doubt that the Balter project was merely a celebrity endorsed gimmick, last night's Australian International Beer Awards in Melbourne should have seen those doubts obliterated. Little more than a year after releasing its first beer, the Gold Coast brewery that counts surfers Mick Fanning, Bede Burbridge, Joel Parkinson and Josh Kerr among its founders took out three trophies and yet more gold medals for its flagship XPA.

The brewery team has said since day one that, despite the attention the famous foursome brings Balter's way, it's all about head brewer Scotty Hargrave (pictured above in braces) and his beers. Now, two years on from collecting two trophies in his previous head brewer's role at Byron Bay Brewery – and a few more from his first AIBA trophy six months into a head brewer role at Sunshine Coast Brewery – it's clear they backed the right man.

After being gently reprimanded by co-host Kirrily "Beer Diva" Waldhorn for saying he needed "a fucking tequila" on his first trip to the stage to collect Best International Style Pale Ale, he had the opportunity to apologise while collecting Best New Exhibitor then another one to bring the rest of the Balter team up onstage to collect the trophy for Champion Medium Australian Brewery.

"I'm just spun out," he told The Crafty Pint afterwards. "It's insane. [Balter] is the real deal. I want people to understand that. We want to make the best beer and that's all. It's not about flogging a dead horse with sporting people."